Hat-frame-wire-measuring apparatus.



w. M. JAMESON. HAT FRAME WIRE MBASDRING APPARATUS.

'APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 6, 1'908.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

IN'JII-IIRJOI? M. JAMESON, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

HAT-FRAME-WIRE-MEASURING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

Application filed February '6, 1908. Serial No. 414,494..

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WINTHROP M. JAME- soN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cambridge, in the county of Suii'olk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Hat-Frame-WireMeasur ing Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specilication, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention resides in an apparatus for measuring hat-frame wire.

In the manufacture of wire hat-fraines, such for example as are'shown in Patent No. 77 5,175, granted November l5, 1904:, the round-andround wires are placed in position upon an apparatus such as illustrated in the said patent, and then the cross or foreand-aft wires are put in position and fastened to or twisted around the roundand round wires. A number of these cross wires are used in each frame, and each cross wire before being put in place had to be cut from the coil or supply of wire. It is found that the waste by reason of cutting these pieces in irregular lengths and longer than necessary is very considerable. The wire used is covered with silk and is expensive, but if each cross wire were measured and cut from the coil before being placed in position the expense of the manufacture would be increased beyond all reason.

The present invention is devised for the purpose of eliminating the waste of wire, and reducing the cost of manufacture by providing cheaply and readily the cross wires of proper and even length for all desired sizes and shapes of hat-frames, and consists in a reel for holding the coil of wire as it is received in the factory, and a rotary measuring device located in proper relation thereto and upon which the wire may be recoiled to present rings or turns of equal and predetermined length, so that upon cutting through the coil in one or more places a large quantity of wires of equal and predetermined length may be secured.

The invention will more fully appear from the accompanying description and drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

The drawings represent the preferred form of apparatus.

In-the drawings, Figurel is a front elevation of the apparatus with a coil of wire thereon being measured. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partially in cross-section, of the measuring portion of the apparatus. Fig. 3 is a detail showing the means to be referred to by which the posts may be adjusted.

The wire-supporting reel comprises a base A and a plate or disk B, rotarily mounted thereon by means of a pin or journal C eX- tending from the plate B into a bearing in the base A. The plate B is provided with radial slots, preferably four in number, and bars D are mounted and adjustable radially in each of the said slots, the construction in this respect being the same as that about to be described in the other part of the apparatus.

lThe measuring portion of the apparatus comprises a base or standard E, having a pedestal F and an overhanging bearing arm G. A disk H is mounted to turn in a vertical plane in the overhanging arm G, being journaled therein by means of the pin or journal J, extending from the disk H into a bearing in the arm G. The journal J is maintained in place by a set-screw K passing through the arm G into a groove in the journal. The disk H is provided with a series, preferably eight, of radial slots L, and the disk is preferably skeletonized between the slots. Each slot carries a post projecting therefrom at right-angles to the disk and radially adjustable in said slots. Fig. 3 illustrates the adjusting means. Each post M is provided with a shoulder N above the disk and is screw-threaded below the disk and provided with a thumb-nut O. The disk H is arranged as shown in the drawings so as to stand in a plane transverse and preferably perpendicular to that of the plane of the rotary reel B, so that the wire may pass directly and freely from the rotary reel on to the post of the measuring disk. The face of the disk is graduated to define the position at which the posts can be set so as to cause a turn of wire about the posts to be of the desired length. For example, when the posts are set at thegraduations marked 19, as in the drawing, a single turn or ring of wire will be either nineteen inches or some multiple of nineteen inches in length, so that if the entire coil be removed from the posts and cut through the pieces of wire will be nineteen inches in length, assuming that nineteen inches is the desired length.

The operation of the apparatus will be apparent from the foregoing. The wire comes to the factory in thick coils of more or less irregular size. It is then placed over the bars D on the rotary reel and the bars adjusted so as to hold the coil of wire rmly and allow the wire to be fed ofi" therefrom in even, smooth and unkinked condition. From the reel it passes directlyto the measuring disk H, and upon the revolution of the disk by the attendant it is wound around the posts M in a thin, flat coil. Vhen the desired quantity of wire has been wound oif on the posts M the coil is removed and severed by a powerful cutting knife at its periphery. If the coil be severed once each turn of the coil will constitute one length of wire, and these turns will all be of substantially the same length, the slight variation, owing to one layer of wire being wound upon another, being negligible in view of the size of the wire and the diameter of the coil. The coil may also be cut into one or more equal segments, thus producing a number of equal shorter lengths of wire. It will thus be seen that by the adjustment of the posts M wire of any desired length may be secured in quantities for use for the cross wires of hats in the factory without wastage and with the wire in straight, smooth and unkinked condition such as is required for use in the manufacture of hats.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

In an apparatus of the class described, a support, a rotary reel mounted thereon to rotate in a horizontal plane, adjustable means on said reel whereby the coil of wire may be lirmly held while being unwound, a second support adjacent said first mentioned support, a rotary measuring disk mounted in said support to rotate in a plane transverse to that of the reel to receive the wire therefrom in straight and unkinked condition, said disk being provided with radial slots, posts extending perpendicular to said disk from said slots, means whereby said posts may be adjusted and locked in position in said slots, said disk also being provided with graduations for defining the position of said posts so that each turn of wire about said posts shall be of substantially equal and predetermined length.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WINTHROP M. JAMESON.

Witnesses THOMAS J. DRUMMOND, MABEL PAn'rELoW. 

